Skip to main content

Ruling Moderate Party of Sweden draws double support of voters

The ruling Moderate Party of Sweden could draw a double  support of voters to its government  in the parliamentary election of the country held on Sunday. The electoral result shows the party achieved  30 percent voter's support in the election which is just double of 15 per cent gained in 2002.

"I have been clear ... We will not co-operate with or be made dependent on the Sweden Democrats," Fredrik Reinfeldt, the prime minister and leader of the ruling centre-right coalition, said after winning 172 seats in the 349-seat parliament, just three short of a majority.

"We have received broad support tonight," he added. But he said it was "not the election result we had hoped for".

An anti-immigration party in Sweden also managed their first win of seats in parliament election of the country signing that far-right parties are gaining some public support in Europe.

The Sweden Democrats (SD), who have described Islam as the country's biggest foreign threat since the second world war, won 20 seats in Sunday's parliamentary elections, leaving the two main parties without a majority.

Both the centre-right governing coalition and the opposition Social Democrats have ruled out any negotiations with the far-right group, instead looking to the Green Party for support.

Stig-Bjorn Ljunggren, a political analyst, told Al Jazeera that the centre-right would "invite the red-green parties for partnership ... to show that they are taking responsibility, that they are reaching out a hand, to ensure that those xenophobes don't get any influence.

"The Social Democrats will say the same thing. But they have to hug the Greens so they're not running away."

The Social Democrats, which for the first time had created a coalition of leftist parties to increase its chances of winning power, suffered a historic loss, winning just 30.9 per cent of the vote, down from 35.3 per cent in 2006.

However, the Green Party, which campaigned as part of a "red-green" opposition coalition with the Social Democrats and communist Left Party, scored its best election result ever with 7.2 per cent of the vote.

But it appeared unlikely that they would willingly give their support to the centre-right coalition.

"It would be very difficult for us after this campaign to look our voters in the eyes and say we have agreed to co-operate with this government," Maria Wetterstrand, co-chairwoman of the Green Party, told Swedish public television.

The SD, who have been celebrating their historic entry into parliament, has dismissed fears that the party could cause legislative chaos.

"We won't cause problems. We will take responsibility. That is my promise to the Swedish people," Jimmie Aakesson, the party's 31-year-old leader, said.

In the final result it is declared that Governing bloc grabbed total 49.30 % voters support while Moderate Party: 30.00%, Liberal Party:7.10%, Centre Party: 6.60%, Christian Democrats: 5.60%.

Besides, Opposition Social Democrats: 30.80%, Green Party: 7.20% and Left Party: 5.60% and much talk about Sweden Democrats backed 5.70% of support.

However, voter turnout in the election was 82.10%.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Bangladesh Stock Market loses BDT 850 Billion

A total of Tk 85,000 crore have been channeled out through the Bangladesh Share Market within the last 30 working days, sources said. The General Index was 8918 points on December 5, 2010 and it labelled down at 6312 point on January 20, 2011.  The amount siphoned off during the last six month specially was very preplanned sources added. Total market capital was Tk 3,68,000 Crore (Tk 3680 Billion) on December 5, 2010 which now collapsed to Tk 2,83,000 Crore (Tk 2830 Billion) on January 20, 2011. Total Capital reduces of Tk 85,000 Crore (850 Billion), which amount is channeled out by the Market Makers in the last one month, sources said. 

BGB from BDR

No more BDR! Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) has officially been named after Border Guard of Bangladesh (BGB) today, January 23, 2011.  The renaming, though came into effect after the president signed the bill passed through parliament over a month ago, came on Sunday after prime minister Sheikh Hasina hoisted the BGB flag at its Peelkhana headquarters.  The flag has also been changed a little bit.  Bangladesh's 'first line of defence' went through a few changes, including its name and uniform, with a new law stipulating death for mutiny, apparently to absolve it of the bloody mutiny of Feb 25-26, 2009.   Parliament passed the bill, which was subsequently endorsed by the president on Dec 20 last year , bringing the changes in BDR to rid it of the stigma that would invariably be attached to its name.  But Maj Gen Mohammad Rafiqul Islam at a function on Jan 1 used his old designation as head of BDR since, according to him, 'formalities' to call him the BGB director g